You are Bob Enfield, scion of the Enfield line -- the one who is finally going to put the family on the map, as it deserves.
Unlike some of the family, you understand the key elements needed for success: subtlety, planning, and ruthlessness. (Well, okay, most of the family grasps ruthlessness.) You've been making ready for almost five years now, putting yourself into the right place at the right time. And now, it's all coming together.
Granted, it's not all running perfectly smoothly. Diewald's death wasn't intentional -- you just wanted him incapacitated. That fool that sold you the poison assured you that it wasn't fatal; it would just give the target agonizing cramps for a couple of days. Now, there's a risk of a murder investigation, which could get in the way. But you're a smooth one, and you've spent years building your poker face; you'll be able to bluff your way through long enough. And "long enough" isn't very long now. It's time to bring your plans to fruition, tomorrow night.
You found out the truth about the ILF almost five years ago; your contacts in the shadowy world of the underground conspiracies were beginning to pay off. You arranged to be in the right place at the right time, and from there it wasn't hard to convince them that you could make a valuable agent. You worked your way up the ranks, volunteering for some dangerous missions, learning more and more about how the world really works. Just in time, too -- you're just high enough in the hierarchy to be where you need to be today.
The other half of the task was actually the trickier one. Everyone in the world of conspiracies had heard of the Followers of Set, but damned few knew much about them. It was clear that, at one time, they had all but ruled the world. Now, they were simply a name among the shadows. Why?
When you found them, you were disappointed, indeed almost disgusted. The Great and Powerful Followers of Set were nothing more than a nervous and disjoint hereditary ragtag group. But they had some numbers, and they were fanatically devoted to their cause. And by making their cause your own, you could arrange for them to be fanatically devoted to you.
You knew, from your studies of history, what you needed to do. You presented yourself to the Followers about three years ago, as "Antipodes", the hereditary leader of the Followers, from a bloodline long lost. At first, they were skeptical -- until you demonstrated your "magic" to them.
The "magic", of course, was simply a well-timed Vortex. You arranged for several of their leaders to meet you where you knew a Vortex was building. It was a fairly small and brief Vortex, too small for the ILF to even worry about; normally, things like this go by unnoticed in the normal world, or dismissed as hallucinations. But it was enough for your purposes. You arranged for them to meet you there, and then told them that you would show them the Home Plane of Set, describing it in gory detail: snakes, fire, temples, the whole nine yards. So then, when the Vortex swept through, despite skepticism, there was enough ambient belief to shape the Vortex the way you wanted it. The lot of you were briefly dropped into the very "plane" you were describing -- since every imaginable world exists somewhere in the multiverse, the Plane of Set really does exist somewhere, and you went there. And then, right on schedule, the Vortex ended, and you were back to the warehouse district where you had met. From then on, they no longer questioned you.
And this weekend, it all comes together. You knew that destiny was tapping you on the shoulder when you found out that Diewald was responsible for managing the meta-Vortex this time. You've wanted revenge on him for years, for slandering your family name, but you've had to bide your time -- anything too overt could wreck your plans. Instead, you worked your way into his good graces, and those of the ILF upper echelons, so that when the time came to organize the "convention", you were selected as deputy.
Then you had to make sure that you were in control. Diewald could yet screw things up; he has a remarkable knack for mucking up a situation. You needed him out of the way, so you could be in charge, ensuring that your people had a free hand. You purchased what was supposed to be a fairly mild poison, and laced it into the bottle of port for opening ceremonies, then suggested to him the notion of drinking a toast to the crew during it. You then arranged Keri Reuss to deliver the poisoned bottle just before opening ceremonies, so that it would be there. Jeff would get a sick a couple of hours later, you would come in and take over, and everything would go smoothly.
Instead, he's dead. Too bad, really -- you had been looking forward to all the terrible things you would do to him in the Days To Come, once you were in control of the world. But you're not going to shed too many tears over opportunities lost; there are more important things to plan.
According to the Vortex Mechanics, a mega-Vortex will hit late Saturday night; best estimates are that it will occur at about 1:30am, during Any Port in a Storm -- The Con-Chair's Party. (Which, come to think of it, should now get renamed The Con-Chair's Wake. Play that up a little; it'll distract people from paying attention to what your people are doing.) The plan is straightforward. You have smuggled in a large number of the Followers, pretending to be simple gamers. At the party, you will gather them together, and describe to them in great detail how the world should be, emphasizing that your control should be eternal. In theory, if enough people believe in this reality hard enough, a Vortex of this size should cause it to happen. Once that's locked into place, you can set about consolidating your control. The Followers are both gullible and stupid, but they're a start; once you are in power, with them as your loyal servants, you can start getting some followers who are actually a little more interesting...
The only possible X factor is Those in Black. Even the Followers
don't know much about them, except that they tend to appear whenever the
Followers are close to victory, wreck the plans, and fade into the woodwork
again. You have to keep your eyes open for them, and prepare to head
them off if they appear...